What Are TIME Magazine's Picks for the Best & Worst Films of 2014?

Now that Edgar Wright has chimed in with his Top 10 Films of 2014, that's opened the flood gates for others to start delivering their lists of what they believe are the best films of the year. The latest contribution comes from TIME Magazine, who always delivers a rather eclectic and strange list. Last year they included Fast & Furious 6 on their Top 10 list, naming it better than some heavy awards contenders that year. This year, their list has a couple surprising inclusions, making for a very weird collection of movies being dubbed the best of 2014. And for those interested, they also delivered a spot-on list of the worst films of the year.

Here's TIME Magazine's lists of the Top 10 Films of 2014, straight from their website:

Perhaps the most surprising inclusion is Lucy, which also made David Ehrlich's Top 25 Films of 2014 yesterday. The film is bold and wild, but I'd hardly deem it one of the best in the year when there are dozens of phenomenal films to choose from. However, I'm happy to see The LEGO Movie and Jodorowsky's Dune get some love, even if their inclusion on the same list as Goodbye to Language seems weird as hell. My only true disagreement is that A Million Ways to Die in the West is not the second worst movie of the year, not by a longshot. But I'm not worked up enough to write an editorial like when they put Cloud Atlas on that list back in 2012. What do you think of TIME's end of the year picks?

It made the 1980's Lawn Mower man feel as good as the first Matrix or 2001 Space Odyssey... literally

shane willett on Dec 5, 2014

9

Lucy was good until the end - WTF ending - not in a good way - its a " Hollywood thinks your stupid ending " Transcendence was just as good, i mean bad

shane willett on Dec 5, 2014

10

Not even close! For starters....
Best:
- Replace Lucy with Under The Skin
- Replace Citizenfour with any one of a number of better docs (The Overnighters, Virunga, Life Itself...)
Worst:
- Replace Legend of Hercules with I, Frankenstein
- Replace Transcendence with The Giver

I agree that Lucy was overrated. I saw the movie for Scarlett and the premise was cool. Movie, not so much. It was stupid and the ideas were very poorly presented. No idea why some thought it was one of the best of the year. Heck, Godzilla was a lot more fun. Where is Interstellar??? Why do these folks keep making such ridiculous choices?

KLD on Dec 5, 2014

19

What a mediocre list. I'm all for this being a list by a single individual, but this is TIME Magazine we're talking about. Birdman below BOYHOOD and LUCY, are you serious?! What were they thinking?! Where are films like Interstellar, Inherent Vice, A Most Violent Year, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, Foxcatcher, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Chef, Captain America: The Winter Solider, The Rover, 22 Jump Street, Top Five, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Gone Girl, Fury, Big Hero 6, Selma, Beyond the Lights, Life Itself and many others (my favourite being The Raid 2, which I can only hope gets a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination)? Apparently all these great films weren't "up to par" with Lucy and that pretentious, overrated dreck known as Boyhood.
The only thing I can agree with them on is their Bottom 10 list, I've only seen two of those films, Transcendence and Let's Be Cops, and they were both garbage. A couple that I would have added would include The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Dracula Untold, Tammy, Deliver Us From Evil, Transformers: Age of Extinction, A Haunted House 2, 300: Rise of an Empire, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Pompeii, 3 Days to Kill, Freezer, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and Robocop.

thejon93rd on Dec 5, 2014

20

you see it in a right way...

Avi on Dec 5, 2014

21

This is a list of the best and worst films not a list of the most 'popular' films that made money at the box office.

CptGrimsdale on Dec 6, 2014

22

It doesn't say anywhere that its in order of preference. And really, Fury and Captain America?

michaeldal65 on Dec 9, 2014

23

grand Budapest hotel was SO good - it was my favorite. although, "interstellar" and "automata" were great watches too. and, I'm really looking forward to "hobbit: battle of the five armies"on the 17th (which I guess is this year too)

dan on Dec 5, 2014

24

Grand Budapest Hotel became a top 10 favorite of mine, which I haven't had a new top 10 film in years. Not that it means much, but it had that level of impact on me.

cool - I thought ralph fiennes was hilarious in GBH. hey, have you seen automata? it never seemed to get a lot of buzz, but I thought the story of what was happening with the robots was very powerful. ...and with the way it ended I'd love to see more.

dan on Dec 5, 2014

26

Loved the first 2/3rds of the film and the fact the robots came across as intelligent but low-tech. I thought the reveal near the end was disappointing - didn't live up to the potential of its premise. Still, a damn good sci-fi movie.

denverchris on Dec 5, 2014

27

agree that the movie didn't live up to the potential of the premise. however, I was fascinated at the notion of the robots becoming sentient. I really enjoyed it. my only big gripe about the film was having to listen to Melanie Griffith read her lines - she can't act at all!

dan on Dec 6, 2014

28

Yeah no kidding on the Melanie Griffith thing.

denverchris on Dec 6, 2014

29

I have not. I'll look into it. I saw a trailer and read some reviews, and I saw it wasn't received well, but I personally think sic-fi needs a chance. I'll give it a chance. 🙂

no edge of tommorow,fury,under the skin???
Seeing scarlet buttnaked in a movie is always awesome and the movie keeps you watching even though nothing not much is happening...

Avi on Dec 5, 2014

36

Love seeing Wild Tales on the list!!! Would add: Whiplash and Mommy. Those were my top three this year.

Listen, hooker on Dec 5, 2014

37

Lucy #4?! Ok, that list is null and void.

John Doe on Dec 6, 2014

38

oh dear lord. i SWEAR i was going to type the same exact thing.

Duane on Dec 6, 2014

39

That is a pretty great list. I would personally put BIRDMAN higher (granted I have not even seen it yet, being in South Korea), but it seems solid.

DAVIDPD on Dec 6, 2014

40

all good until I saw "Lucy" on the best films list. That movie had an interesting idea but was executed all wrong. Filled with horrible science, cliches, bad dialogue, etc.

IamSlave on Dec 6, 2014

41

Transcendence was a lot better than Lucy. Where's Winter Soldier, Planet of the apes, Foxcatcher, and Guardians of the Galaxy. All of those deserve to be on their way more than Lucy..

Guest on Dec 6, 2014

42

Just my opinion, but Foxcatcher is terrible and doesn't deserve anything but 1-2 acting nominations, definitely nothing for end-of-the-year best of lists. What a disappointing film.

rundmc1981 on Dec 7, 2014

43

Transcendence was a lot better than Lucy.. Where's Winter Soldier, Foxcatcher, Guardians of The Galaxy, and Planet of the Apes? All of those deserve to be on that list way more than Lucy.

steve on Dec 6, 2014

44

Guardians imho is easily one of the best films of the year....EASILY.

Jeff Prioleau on Dec 8, 2014

45

on the worst of the year, the only ones i agree with are
Legend Of Hercules, Winter's Tale & Transcendence.
i enjoyed the rest.

TomNewYorker on Dec 6, 2014

46

I don't take any of these lists seriously that does not include Whiplash.

rundmc1981 on Dec 6, 2014

47

While I love both Besson and Johansson (for slightly various reasons) Lucy was a huge disappointment. Pretentious, underwhelming and at a running time of under 90 minutes it still felt too long ... Let's Be Cops and Walk of Shame were enjoyable comedies on the other hand. My top 5 (noting at time of writing I have yet to see big hitters like Interstellar, Gone Girl and Fury): Wolf of Wall Street (released in 2014 in Belgium), The Drop, Guardians of the Galaxy, Snowpiercer, John Wick. Worst movie: Transformers 4 (enough already!)

Kenneth Peeters on Dec 7, 2014

48

Lucy? LUCY? LUCY!??

Ege Sönmez on Dec 8, 2014

49

A million ways to die in the west was a stupid and fun movie, as it was advertised. I got almost exactly what I expected from it. It was not a serious movie or anything, I don't see why it is on that list.

Ege Sönmez on Dec 8, 2014

50

...where the f*ck is Guardians?

Jeff Prioleau on Dec 8, 2014

51

INTERSTELLAR.... Come on guys.... Ivé never seen a whole cinema full of people cried so HARD!

into_the_blue on Dec 8, 2014

52

or is Interstellar on Top 10 Films of EVER!

into_the_blue on Dec 8, 2014

53

They should have released this list on the April 1st. What a garbage!

disqusme on Dec 9, 2014

54

They forgot Edge of Tomorrow, a brilliant film by Doug Liman marred by unjustified hatred for Tom Cruise and bad marketing. It's an intelligent, funny, edge-of-your-seat, charismatic film that makes you realize why cinema was invented for a reason.